Easy Hot Cross Buns

Yes, More Easter Baking from me. Here is my very first attempt at "Hot Cross Buns".
There was no "mixed spice" in my cupboard as Mary Berry suggested to use.
So, I just made up my own "mixed spice" with what I had in the cupboard.
I also found out I had run out of plain flower to make the "cross" decoration. So, instead, I used icing to make the cross.
Result? Surprisingly, the smell of "hot cross buns" came from the oven.
Obviously, these are not text book Hot Cross Buns, but I'm a happy bunny. :)

Ingredients

• 250g strong white flour
  
• 20g caster sugar
• 7g easy-action yeast
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 50g unsalted butter softened or low-fat spread
• 80ml milk
• zest of 1 orange
• 50g sultanas
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• a pinch of ground coriander

Method

1. Put all the ingredients, apart from the sultanas, in a bowl and mix together with an electric whisk with dough hooks for about 5 minutes until the dough becomes a ball. If the dough struggles to come together add 10ml more milk to make it very sticky. 
2. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave the dough in a warm place until it doubles in size. 
   
3. Knock down the air and mix in the sultanas and orange zest with your hands with some oil.
4. Shape the dough and place it in the baking tray and bake in a preheated oven (140c fan) for 10 minutes.
5. Turn down the temperature of the oven to 120c and bake for another 20 minutes.
6. Take the bread from the oven and cool for a few minutes. Then brush with syrup (some sugar and water). Decorate with icing.

Gingerbread Miffy

Happy Easter, Everyone. 

I know chocolate eggs are the usual Easter treat, but how about these gingerbread Miffy biscuits?

Great wee pressie for Miffy lovers. :) 

Ingredients

• 350g (12oz) plain flour 
  
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2tsp ground ginger
• 1tsp ground cinnamon
• 125g (4oz) butter, cubed
• 175g (6oz) light muscovado sugar
• 1 egg
• 4Tbsp golden syrup

 Method

1. Preheat the oven to gas 4, 180°C, fan 160°C. Line two baking trays with nonstick baking paper. In a food processor, mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon. Add the butter and pulse until it has been incorporated. Add the sugar and pulse a further 3-4 times.
2. In a bowl, put the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and rub in the butter with your fingers. Mix in the remaining ingredients with a wooden spoon, before bringing the gingerbread dough together by hand together the egg and golden syrup with a fork. (Alternatively put all the ingredients into the food processor and whizz until the mixture comes together in sticky clumps.) Shape the dough into a ball and wrap in clingfilm; chill for 30 minutes.
3. On a large sheet of lightly floured, nonstick baking paper, roll out half the dough to roughly the thickness of a pound coin. Using a biscuit cutter, (I found a Miffy biscuit cutter on eBay) stamp out some shapes. Arrange on one of the prepared trays and bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Easter Lemon Cake

One of my favourite lemon drizzle cakes dressed for Easter.

Ingredients 

• 225g/8oz butter (or low-fat spread if you prefer), softened
• 225g/8oz caster sugar

• 225g/8oz self raising flour, sifted 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• zest of 1 lemon
• 4 medium size eggs

      For the drizzle topping

• juice of 1 lemon
• 85g caster sugar

 Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/ Fan160C/Gas Mark 4. Grease a (20cm) round, deep loose-based tin and line with baking parchment.
2. Place the butter, sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl. Use an electric whisk to beat the butter and sugar together until they are pale and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, whisking well between additions and adding 2 tbsp of the flour with the last egg - this will prevent curdling.
3. Sift over the remaining flour, then gently fold in with a metal spoon along with 2 tbsp hot water. Spoon into the prepared tin, level the surface and bake for 45-50 mins or until it is shrinking away from the sides of the tin. A fine skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. Cool in the tin for 5 mins.
4. Squeeze the lemon juice, then sieve to remove the bits. Use the fine skewer to prick the cake all over, pour over the syrup, then sprinkle over the sugar before removing the cake from the tin. Serve in wedges.

You could decorate the cake with icing (icing sugar and lemon juice) and chocolate mini-eggs for Easter. 

Easy Brioche with leftover egg yolks

How to use up leftover egg yolks after making pavlova or meringue is an issue.

So, here is another idea for using up the egg yolks.

I had 3 egg yolks left over so I used these 3 egg yolks instead of 1 whole egg in a recipe for sweet dough.

The result was surprisingly good. The bread turned out very soft, fluffy and yet moist.

It was a bit like Panetone or Brioche.

Handling the sweet dough was tricky as it was a very wet dough and stuck to my hands.

Unfortunately, I don't have one of those fancy stand mixers but I just have a good old hand mixer.

Recently, I discovered that the "dough hooks" which came with the hand mixer can do the same job as the stand mixer. I've been using my very basic hand mixer for a long time, but I have never used the "dough hooks" until I discovered they were actually for dough.

Anyway, kneading sweet dough has became a doddle. 

Ingredients

• 250g strong white flour
  
• 20g caster sugar
• 7g easy-action yeast
• ¼ tsp salt
• 3 egg yolks
• 50g unsalted butter softened or low-fat spread
• 80ml milk
• zest of 1 lemon
• 50g raisins

Method

1. Put all the ingredients, apart from the raisins, in a bowl and mix together with an electric whisk with dough hooks for about 5 minutes until the dough becomes a ball. If the dough struggles to come together add 10ml more milk to make it very sticky.
   
2. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave the dough in a warm place until it doubles in size.
3. Knock down the air and mix in the raisins with your hands with some oil.
4. Shape the dough and place it in the baking tray and bake in a preheated oven (140c fan) for 10 minutes.
5. Turn down the temperature of the oven to 120c and bake for another 20 minutes.
6. Take the bread from the oven and cool for a few minutes. Then decorate with icing.

No Waste Pavlova with Lemon Curd

Pavlova is a great dessert to impress guests though it's very easy to make and prepare in advance.

So, I often make it for a dinner party.

The problem is what to do with the leftover egg yolks. Custard? Mayonnaise?  

Tada! This recipe solves the problem, as you can make the lemon curd for the pavlova itself.

The tangy lemony flavour works very well with the sweet meringue. It's very refreshing. :)  

Ingredients

For the pavlova base

• 2 tsp cornflour

• 2 tsp white wine vinegar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 4 medium free range eggs, at room temperature
• 200g caster sugar

For the Lemon Curd

• 4 egg yolks

• 130g caster sugar
• 60g unsalted butter

• 2 tsp grated lemon zest 
• 100ml lemon juice (appox. 3 lemons) 

Method for Pavlova base

1. Preheat the oven to 140°C (fan).
2. Line a baking sheet with non-stick baking parchment, cutting it to fit. Using a cake tin or plate as a template, draw a 23cm diameter circle on the parchment with a pencil.

3. Place the cornflour, vinegar and vanilla extract in a small bowl and blend with a teaspoon until smooth.
4. Separate the eggs one at a time, taking care not to include any yolks with the whites.
5. As each egg is separated, tip the white into the large mixing bowl.
 Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff enough to hold their shape.
6. Whisk in the sugar a tablespoonful at a time, adding a little of the cornflour mixture each time.
7. When all the sugar and cornflour has been added, the consistency of the mixture will be thick and marshmallowy.

8. Using the spatula, turn the meringue mixture onto the baking sheet. Spread it to the marked line, then swirl with the spatula, making a slight indentation in the centre for the filling.
9. When the Pavlova is ready to bake, turn the temperature down to 120°C and bake it for 1 hour. Then turn the oven off and leave the pavlova base to cool completely in the oven.

Method for Lemon Curd

1. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until well combined but not frothy.
2. Tip into a heavy-based non-reactive saucepan and add butter, zest and juice.
3. Stirring constantly, bring to simmering point over a medium-high heat (about five minutes).
4. As soon as bubbles appear, remove from heat, still stirring. Allow to cool. Transfer to a sterilised jar and seal if you do not use all the lemon curd for the pavlova.

Pour the Crème fraiche on top of the Pavlova and drizzle the lemon curd.

Classic Carrot Cake

It's good to have a classic recipe which you can rely on and "almost" guarantees that everybody loves it.  

This is my humble simple carrot cake. The main ingredients weigh 6 oz (175g) so it's very easy to remember. 

This is nothing fancy, but it always makes me feel cosy. It's a cake, but with vegetables in it, so I don't feel so guilty........... am I totally wrong? 

Ah, by the way, this recipe has slightly less fat than conventional carrot cake recipes.  

6 oz Carrot Cake

Ingredients

• 6oz (175g) brown soft sugar
• 6oz (175g) self-raising flour
• 6oz (175g) grated carrot

• 150ml sunflower oil
• 100g sultanas
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp baking-powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• grated zest of 1 large orange

• 175g icing sugar
• 1-2 Tbsp orange juice or lemon juice

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C.
2. Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind.
3. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients – when everything is evenly amalgamated stop mixing. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 50 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack. (You can freeze the cake at this point.)
5. Beat together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl until smooth – you want the icing about as runny as single cream. Set the cake on a serving plate and boldly drizzle the icing back and forth in diagonal lines over the top, letting it drip down the sides. 

Very Lemony Muffins

If you love lemon flavour it can't get more lemony than this.

All sweet Valentine Day's treat with a tangy twist. Classic. :) 

Ingredients (makes approx 12 muffins)

For Muffins: 

• 280g/10oz plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 115g/4oz caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 200ml milk
• 6 tbsp/ 90ml sunflower oil
• juice of one lemon and zest of 2 lemons
• approx 4 tbsp lemon curd (optional)

For the lemon syrup

• Juice of one lemon and a bit of zest
• 80g granulated sugar

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C/400 F/Gas Mark 6 and grease muffin tin or place cases in muffin tin.
2. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder then stir in the caster sugar.
3. Lightly beat the eggs in a separate bowl and then beat in the milk, oil and juice of one lemon. Make a well in the dry ingredients’ bowl and pour in the beaten liquid then stir gently until combined but try not to over mix. Then stir through the zest of two lemons (You could leave a little for the lemon syrup to make it extra lemony).
4. Spoon half of the mixture into the prepared muffin tins or cases then add a teaspoon of lemon curd into the centre of each one before spooning the rest of the muffin mixture on top if you would like the muffins to have a lemony creamy surprise. However, the muffins are just lovely without this.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes until they are well risen, golden brown and firm to the touch.
6. While baking the muffins, make the lemon syrup with the juice of one lemon, granulated sugar and lemon zest. Mix the lemon juice and granulated sugar in a small bowl to give a runny consistency.
7. Then transfer to a wire rack. Prick the warm muffins all over with a skewer then pour over the drizzle – the juice will sink in and the sugar will form a lovely, crisp topping

Happy Christmas Baking

Happy Christmas Everyone

My Christmas log this year has Chestnut cream filling which I made and kept in the freezer.  

(click here for the chestnut cream recipe) 

This is a much smaller swiss roll (Genoise cake) recipe with 2 eggs instead of 3 eggs.

• 2 eggs
• 60g caster sugar
• 50g plain (or self raising) flower + 10g cocoa powder
• pinch of salt
• 10ml vegetable oil 

Click here for the swiss roll recipe. 

Chocolate ganache couldn't be easier. I melted 100g of plain chocolate with 2 tsp of milk in the microwave. 

More Christmas baking? Why not some ginger biscuits? :)  Happy Christmas.

Apple Flapjack

A friend of mine has a BIG apple tree in her garden that produces a lot of Bramley apples.
I just can't resit her offer of huge bags full of such lovely, juicy and tangy fruit.
So, I've been busy making apple chutney, muffins and cakes.... goodness knows pretty much everything I could think of.  When I almost ran out of ideas for using up the apples, I came across a recipe for "Apple Flapjack" which is not "crunchy" flapjack, but is very moist.
I suppose it's a different type of snack and very morish, a great afternoon treat for sure.

Ingredients

• 250g (8oz) butter or low-fat spread 
• 250g (8oz) caster sugar
• 175g (6oz) golden syrup 425g (14oz) porridge oats
• 2 apples (I used 300g of grated Bramley apples, which turned out VERY moist. Use 200g of Apples for a less moist result)

Method

1. Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4, 180°C, fan160°C. Line a 20 x 30cm (8 x 12in) cake tin with non-stick baking paper.
2. Melt butter, caster sugar and golden syrup together in a pan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in the oats and apples.
3. Spread the mixture in the tin and sprinkle cinnamon sugar and bake for 25-30 minutes. Cut into 12-14 bars; allow to cool before turning out of the tin. 

Sweet Chestnut Swiss Roll

This Autumn seems to be a very good year for sweet chestnuts. Well, at least our local woods, Ruislip woods, have provided a lot of really good quality sweet chestnuts this year.

Collecting chestnuts is fun and we got so many. I made 2 jam jars and one ice cream tub of chestnut puree. So, I have been trying to be clever using the lovely creamy sweet chestnut puree.

Here is one of my successful attempts to enjoy this Autumn flavour. 

I spread too much puree on the sponge and, unfortunately, I could not Swiss-roll it. 

Can I still call it "Swiss roll"?

Well, let say it's "Ruislip roll." 

Ingredients:

For the Sponge

• 3 eggs
• 75g caster sugar
• 75g self-raising flour

For the Sweet Chestnut Puree

Click here for the recipe

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Grease and line a 23cm x 30cm/9in x 12in Swiss roll tin.
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy. 

3. Fold in the flour and spoon the mixture into the tin. Bake in the oven 
for 7-10 minutes, or until light and springy to the touch. 

4. Remove from the oven and turn the sponge out onto another piece of greaseproof paper. 

5. For the filling, spread the sweet chestnut puree (click for the recipe) onto the sponge, leaving a small gap around the edges. 

6. Roll the sponge. 

7. Dust with icing sugar and serve. 

Mount Blanc cupcakes

"Mount Blanc" cake was one of my favourite cakes when I was little.
My mum wasn't a baker, so she got these beauties from the local bakery.
So, this reminds me of my childhood.
I leant that the French make "Mont Blanc" with meringue. But my Japanese version of Mont Blanc uses very soft sponge cake as a base rather than meringue. 
When you cut this little Mont Blanc, you will see the fresh cream inside. What a treat. :)

Sponge base (for 10 cupcakes)

• 2 eggs
• 35g sugar
• 30g Self raising (or 30g plain flour + ½ tsp BP)
• 5g cocoa powder (optional, if you would like to make chocolate sponge)

Method:

1. Whisk the eggs with a hand mixer until very fluffy and pale in colour.
2. Keep whisking and add sugar in three batches.
3. Add sifted flour all at once and gently fold with a spatula to combine the egg mixture and flour. Do not over mix.  You need to keep the air in the mixture.
4. Pour the mixture into the muffin cases.
5. Bake them in a preheated oven at 170c for 15-20 minutes.
6. Cool them completely before decorating.
7. Make sugar syrup with 3 tsp sugar, 2 tsp water  and 1 tsp rum.
8. Brush the sugar syrup on top of each cake.

Now, the cupcakes are ready to be decorated.

You'll need whipped double cream and sweet chestnut puree. (Click here for the recipe)

1. Place a mound of whipped cream in the middle of each cake.
2. Mix the chestnut puree with 1 tsp of rum and put it in a piping bag.
3. Pipe the chestnut puree around the mound of whipped cream to create a “Mount Blanc” effect.

Sweet Chestnut Puree

Harvest time. :)
We are lucky that there is a "secret wood" where we can find a lot of lovely sweet chestnuts every Autumn. Another great harvest this year.
Sweet chestnuts are commonly used in savoury dishes in the UK, but for me, sweet chestnuts should be for "sweet" treats.  So, I made sweet chestnut puree. Yes, "sweet" sweet chestnut puree.
First, the shell needs to be removed. That's the hard bit.
Here is the way I did it.

1. Cut a cross in the chestnut shell.
2. Pre-heat your oven to 200C and place a roasting dish or oven tray inside. 

3. Pop the chestnuts into a saucepan of water and bring it up to the boil. 
4. Once it is boiling, start your timer for 2 
minutes. At the end of that time, drain the water off the chestnuts and tip the still steaming chestnuts onto the hot 
oven tray in the oven. 

5. Leave the chestnuts in the oven for 7 minutes.
6. While the nuts are roasting, prepare a large bowl and put a tea towel inside the bowl. 

7. Toss the nuts inside the tea towel in the bowl. This will keep the nuts warm as you peel them. 
It’s easier to peel them when they are warm.
8. Pull one nut out at a time from under the towel and pull the shell and fluffy inner skin away from the kernel. 
Keep going until you’re all done. 
If you are making puree, the shape of the chestnut doesn’t matter. So, use a teaspoon and scoop out the flesh.

Now the next bit is much easier.  

For chestnut puree, you will need;

• 300g chestnuts (unshelled weight)
• 300ml milk

• 200g sugar

• 1 vanilla bean (or 1 tsp Vanilla paste)

Method:

1. Chop the chestnuts roughly then place in a saucepan with the milk, sugar and vanilla. Bring to a simmer so 
that all the sugar dissolves and continue to heat for about 20 minutes so that the chestnuts have a chance to 
absorb some of the milk. 

2. Remove the vanilla bean. Pour the remaining ingredients into a blender (be careful! It will be hot!) then blend 
until it forms a thick liquid. 

3. Return the liquid back to the saucepan and heat, stirring continuously until it thickens and forms a bubbling 
paste. Let the chestnut puree cool before using it.

 

Now this lovely "sweet Chestnut Puree" is ready to be used for sweet treats.

I made "Mount Blanc cupcakes." I guess it's a Japanese-French fusion style of cake. 
Click here for the recipe.

... or you could make some little "Chestnut Truffles."
Simply, mix leftover cake crumbs and the chestnut puree together.
Roll into small balls and roll in cocoa powder. That's it. Enjoy.

"Kartoffelbrot" German Potato Bread

Yes. This is a potato loaf. A lot of potatoes are in there. When I came across this recipe, I was puzzled how 50:50 potato and flour makes a loaf.  But, here it is. It's soft, moist and more-ish. Although it's a bit of a fiddle to make this humble looking loaf, it's worth the effort. It has very distinctive texture different from any bread I have ever baked. The bouncy texture remains even a day after it is baked. 

Great with a bowl of soup.

Ingredients  

• about 375g/13oz potatoes, peeled and cut into even chunks (Exactly 300g/101⁄2oz peeled weight. Check the weight once they are peeled.)
• 1 tsp dried fast-action yeast
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 300g/101⁄2oz strong white flour, plus extra for kneading (or 100g/31⁄2oz strong wholemeal flour and 200g/7oz strong white flour) 

Method

1. Place the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with cold water, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat slightly and cook for 15–20 minutes until they are tender but not falling apart.
2. Drain the potatoes in a colander over a bowl and reserve the cooking liquid. Return the potatoes to the pan and toss over a very low heat for 2-3 minutes until any excess liquid has evaporated.
3. Pour 75ml/5 tbsp of the warm cooking liquid into a large bowl and leave to cool for a few minutes. When it’s lukewarm, sprinkle in the yeast. Stir in the sugar and leave in a warm place for about 10 minutes until a light foam appears on the surface. (Add an extra tablespoon of the cooking liquor for a mixture of wholemeal and white flour.)
4. Mash the potatoes with the oil in the saucepan until they’re as smooth as possible, then stir in the yeast mixture.
5. Mix well with a wooden spoon and gradually add the flour and salt, a few tablespoons at a time, stirring well before adding more. Turn it out on to the work surface and knead the remaining flour into the dough. At this stage, the dough looks dry, do NOT be tempted to add more water otherwise the dough WILL become too sticky to work with.
6. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until soft and pliable. Place it in a lightly oiled bowl, cover loosely with lightly oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 60-90 minutes, or until well-risen and spongy to touch.
7. Knock back the dough with your knuckles and shape it into a rough ball. Flatten the ball on a floured surface, then bring the sides up to the middle to give a rustic surface to the bread. Sprinkle on some flour. Place it on a lightly oiled and floured baking sheet and leave to prove in a warm place for a further 30 minutes.
8. Preheat the oven to 220°C/Fan 200°C Score the dough with a knife along the pinched join and sprinkle the top with the onion seeds. Bake the loaf in the centre of the oven for 35 minutes until well risen and crusty on top. Cool on a wire rack.